1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to providing amusement park rides that provide high throughput and high daily capacities. More particularly, the present description relates to a ride system that retains the many benefits of simulators but without the problems of low throughput, operational inefficiency, and ride capacity typically associated with use of single simulators.
2. Relevant Background
Amusement and theme parks continue to be popular worldwide with hundreds of millions of people visiting the parks each year. To entertain these park visitors, many parks have turned to simulators such as motion simulators. A passenger motion simulator may be used as an amusement park ride with a seating platform that may have multi-degree of freedom movement and seats 2 to 8 or more passengers for each simulation (or “ride”). A vehicle body typically has walls that wrap around the passenger seats on the seating platform to provide a projection surface(s) or block sightlines to shared projection surfaces. Prior to each simulation or ride, passengers that experienced the prior simulation must disembark and then a next group of passengers has to enter the vehicle and be arranged safely in their seats.
The movement of the platform can be combined with projected visual effects on the interior sidewalls of the vehicle body to effectively simulate motion that would be technically difficult to build and impractical due to size and other constraints to provide in a track-based ride. These simulators may be thought of as motion theaters and have been used to simulate a flying vehicle, a racing land-based vehicle, and a submarine or other vehicle moving in a liquid through movement and vibration of the seat platform (or seats) through yaw, pitch, and roll and/or other movements. The simulator may add other effects such as air flow and moisture to enhance the simulation with wind and water spray or snow to further create the illusion of fast movements. Nearly any virtual world can be created via media used to provide visual, audio, and other special effects.
By changing the media and programming used to move the seating platform or provide other effects, new “rides” or simulations presenting new worlds and adventures can be quickly achieved without requiring replacement of much if any of the physical equipment of the simulator. More recently, 3D technology has been added to simulators to further enhance the experience with the passengers typically wearing 3D glasses to view projected 3D imagery (e.g., right and left eye images or the like).
Due to the high quality of the ride experience provided by these devices, simulators have become a staple of amusement parks including theme parks. However, there are a number of limitations or problems with use of simulators. While simulators have a small footprint due to being a stationary vehicle, they typically have relatively low passenger capacity with larger simulator vehicles seating 20 to 30 or fewer passengers. Further, simulators provide relatively low utilization of the space and show equipment as passengers load and unload from a single vehicle such that the simulator is idle for a significant amount of time between operations or simulations, e.g., a second set of passengers cannot begin their experience until the prior or first set of passengers exits the vehicle. Additionally, the simulator experience has become predictable to many as simulators have become more common and are now provided outside large parks such as at malls and arcades. Also, simulators are operationally inefficient as both passengers and staff are distributed to many locations within the facility to load and unload individual simulator bays.
Hence, there remains a need for a ride system that provides high capacity or passenger throughput while making use of the desirable aspects of a simulator such as providing a small footprint, being useful for gaming or interactive opportunities, being reprogrammable to create new experiences or rides, and simulating vehicle movements and sensations through fantastical environments not practical with a conventional track-based or other physical ride system. Preferably, such a ride system would hide or disguise the use of a simulator such that many passengers would fail to perceive that they were even on a simulator. In some theme parks, it would also be desirable for the ride system to provide enhanced storytelling within the narrative or ride experience.